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HAND-BOOK 



is 



OF THE 



SULPHUR-CURE, 

AS APPLICABLE TO THE 

VINE DISEASE IN AMERICA, 

AND DISEASES OF 

APPLE AND OTHER FRUIT TREES. 



&. 



By WILLIAM J. FLAGG, 

AUTHOR OF "THREE SEASONS IN EUROPEAN VINEYARDS. 




NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 

l8.7 0. 
I 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 









PREFACE. 



AT the request of many vine-growers* who had 
become acquainted with my completely suc- 
cessful treatment of "mildew" by the sulphur-cure 
as learned in Europe, I undertook to set down a few 
brief precepts and rules for the guidance of such 
persons as might be disposed to follow my example. 
The work has grown into something like a treatise, 
and become much larger than I at first proposed 
to make it ; and yet a good deal is omitted that 
might, perhaps, profitably be included, because I 
have thought it prudent to wait and observe for 
one or two seasons more, and also collect the obser- 
vations and opinions of others, whose co-operation I 
now solicit, before attempting to write a work that 
shall cover the whole ground. And I here give no- 
tice that I write as a learner rather than a teacher, 
and reserve the right to confess my errors as often as 
I shall become aware of them. 



iv Preface. 

Thus premising, I venture to affirm that the need 
for this little work is most urgent. So far as I have, 
with diligent inquiry, been able to learn, the meth- 
ods for sulphuring diseased vines at present known 
to the grape-growers of America (except only as em- 
bodied in my lately published work on European 
Yineyards) are wholly insufficient, and can, in our cli- 
mate, lead to nothing but failure and discourage- 
ment. The reasons for this will be developed in the 
pages which follow. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Introductory. — The Disease at length believed in. — Not so the Rem- 
edy Page 7 

CHAPTER II. 

The Oi'dium; the Science of it. — History and Description of it. — Its 
Effect on different Parts of the Vine. — Its fundamental Character- 
istics. — Erysephe the true Name 11 

CHAPTER III. 

The Mildew. — Doubts of its Identity with the O'idium. — Supposed 
Points of Difference. — The Erysephe of the Vine known in Amer- 
ica before heard of in Europe. — Points of Resemblance. — Gray 
Rot.— Calf's Eye.— Black Rot 17 

CHAPTER IV. 

Description of the Black Rot. — Its Effects. — Conditions which pre- 
dispose to it. — Causes which bring it on. — "Well known in Europe. 
— Also in Ancient Greece. — Consequences of confounding it with 
Rottenness from Mildew. — The Fungus that accompanies it a Con- 
sequence, and not a Cause. — Drainage and Ventilation its only 
Cure 24 

CHAPTER V. 

Reasons why the Sulphur-cure is not practiced in America. — Appa- 
rent and real Failures of Experiments accounted for. — Improper 
Tools and Material. — Ignorance of Rules. — Delusive Hopes in new 
Varieties and new Soils 32 

CHAPTER VI. 

Effects of Sulphur on Foliage in certain Cases. — Destruction of In- 
sects. — A Precaution suggested 40 



vi Contents. 

CHAPTER VII. 
Effects of Sulphur on the Wine. — Bad Taste from it, how corrected. — 
Good Effects Page 45 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Different Preparations and Mixtures of Sulphur. — Plour of Sulphur. 
— Ground Sulphur. — Mode of testing their Quality. — Hobson's 
Choice in home-made Sulphurs. — To detect the Elour from the 
Ground. — Various Mixtures with other Substances. — Experiments 
with such Mixtures in France, and Report of Results. — Nineteen 
Ways to cure O'idium 48 

CHAPTER IX. 

Implements proper to use. — The Vergnes Bellows. — Canvas Bag. — 
Dredge-box — with a Tuft. — Little Brush. — Faults of other Bellows 
than the Vergnes 61 

CHAPTER X. 

Weather suitable for Sulphuring. — Proper Temperature. — Effect of 
Rains 67 

CHAPTER XI. . 
How to conduct the Work.— Handling the Bellows and Dredge-box. 
— Test of good Work. — Proper Charge for a Bellows. — Equipment 
of Workmen 69 

CHAPTER XII. 

Of the proper Times for Sulphuring. — How to recognize the Presence 
of Mildew. — How to know of its Approach. — Signal Vines, and 
where to look for them. — The Four Rules. — The Three Periods. — 
First Period. — Second. — Third. — Mildew-proof Foliage of Amer- 
ican Vines. — Sulphuring only the Fruit in certain Cases. — Partial 
Sulphuring 73 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Miscellaneous. — Cost of Sulphuring. — Cultivation. — Drainage. — 
Vines peculiarly susceptible to Disease. — The Norton's Virginia 
Seedling. — Sulphuring Apple and other Fruit Trees 88 



HAND-BOOK 

OP 

The Sulphur-Cure. 



CHAPTEE I. 

TN my volume entitled " Three Seasons in Euro- 
-*- pean Yineyards," published in the spring of 1869, 
I strove to arouse my fellow-grape-growers to a sense 
of their danger from the spread of the vine disease, 
and to encourage them to adopt the remedy which 
had proved so efficacious in other countries, and try 
it, as I myself was resolved to try it, thoroughly, faith- 
fully, hopefully. But my words had little effect. 

Since then, events have come to my aid. A season 
of pestilence far more fatal than ever known before 
has dispelled those illusions of safety so fondly cher- 
ished, and blighted all those fanciful, various, and oft- 
en conflicting theories invented to prove that certain 
soils or situations, or certain new varieties of vine, 
must forever remain safe and invulnerable. 



8 The Sulphur-Cure. 

He who would persuade a sick man to take medi- 
cine finds he has gained an important point when the 
patient is induced to admit that he really is ill. I 
think that to-day there are few who will deny there 
are sick vines — very sick ones — on the hills of the 
Ohio, on the bluffs of the Missouri, on the shores and 
islands of the Lake — sick Concords, disordered Dela- 
wares, suffering Ives's, diseased Gortons, and dead Ca- 
tawbas. 

But how shall I go about it to establish the next 
point, namely, that there is a remedy at hand perfect- 
ly efficient to arrest the plague, and turn back our 
afflicted industry from the very gates of death ? 

I can point to the fact that, the disease being a 
fungus, sulphur is scientifically known to destroy all 
kinds of fungi. I can refer to numerous instances, 
well known and often published, wherein the same 
disease, appearing in greenhouses, has been unfail- 
ingly cured by means of sulphur sprinkled on the hot 
pipes. I can relate how, during that same sickly 
season of 1869, 1 treated with sulphur my own vine- 
yard of twelve year old Catawbas, in that doomed dis- 
trict, the Ohio Valley, and which had for the four 
preceding years been ravaged by the pest, and how I 
succeeded completely, as I knew I should, after what 
I had learned in Europe. Or I might cite other cases, 



Introductory. 9 

where, though success was somewhat less complete, 
yet sufficient was obtained to prove that sulphur has 
a marked specific power over the disease. But these 
cases, even if admitted and believed, are unfortunate- 
ly met by others in which the same remedy has been 
tried and failed — that is to say, sulphur has been 
sprinkled, and yet the grapes have decayed. 

I might appeal to the experience of European coun- 
tries, where, during fourteen years, the sulphur-cure 
has been their sole and yet sufficient reliance against 
the terrible oidium, which, during the three or four 
years of its first irruption, swept every thing before 
it ; but men will not easily believe in facts that are 
remote, and are averse to stretch their belief across 
an ocean. I am myself an example, for it was not 
until I had traveled through those countries that I 
really comprehended and believed what I had, nev- 
ertheless, often enough, through books, journals, and 
word of mouth, been credibly informed was true. 
And even there — even in France, before the panic- 
stricken cultivators could be induced to try the sim- 
ple remedy, Mares, De la Vergne, and others were 
obliged to conduct experiments on a large scale, and 
through a series 'of years, in many different districts, 
under governmental auspices; and the latter had to 
publish, besides numerous articles in the journals, as 
A2 



10 The Sulphur-Cure. 

many as thirteen separate pamphlet treatises, and, 
furthermore, to go about from commune to com- 
mune, and from one department to another, deliver- 
ing lectures and holding discussions. 

Wherefore, and aware of the difficulties of the situ- 
ation, in now asking for a new hearing and a better 
heeding, I invoke the aid of all willing vine-dressers, 
and the prayers of all good Christians. 



The Oidium. 



11 




CHAPTER II. 



THE OIDIUM. 



rpHE vine disease, as they know it in Europe, is a 
-*- little mushroom, a vegetable parasite, which fast- 
ens to and grows upon the surfaces of the different 
parts of the grape-vine. It is scientifically termed 
"Erysephe" more properly than " 0'idium" and is 
classified as a cryptogam of the family of Mucedines. 
To the naked eye it appears only as a fine whitish 
dust, covering portions of the leaves, buds, stalks, 
fruit, or fruit-stems. Its existence was first discov- 
ered in the year 1845 on the vines of a greenhouse 
in Margate, England, whence it soon found its way 
across the Channel into France, and thence spread rap- 



12 The Sulphur-Cuke. 

idly over all Europe, carrying swift destruction wher- 
ever it went, and exciting the utmost dismay. In the 
Memoir of Mr. Mares it is described as follows : 

" The essential characteristics of the disease of the 
vine are every where the same, whether observed at 
Margate, where it first appeared, or at Madeira, or in 
the South of France. At the same time, the appear- 
ance, the exterior aspect of the diseased vine, its "fa- 
des," in a word, vary with the variety of vine attack- 
ed, its force, its development ; it varies also accord- 
ing as the attack is recent or remote — the case one 
of a few days' standing, or one several weeks old. 
Finally, the disease affects certain particular forms, 
which seem to change its nature (the red-leaf or 
rougeau, for instance), and which give it a special 
malignity. It is all these causes united which have, 
without doubt, called forth so many different hypoth- 
eses relating to this disease. 

" If, in summer-time, we examine a vine that has 
been some few days diseased, we shall find it to have 
a languishing aspect. The color of its foliage has 
lost its liveliness and shine, and turned to a livid yel- 
low. The green parts (the product of the year) are 
covered here and there, over all their surface, with a 
sort of whitish dust, but slightly adhesive, from which 
continually exhales a musty odor sui generis. This 



The Oidiui. 13 

dust is, in fact, a species of mould. It is formed by 
the different parts of a little cryptogam parasite of 
the family of Mucedines. This it is that has been 
named by Mr. Berkley O'idiwn Tucheri. 

" In measure as the divers characteristics just men- 
tioned are developed, the vine appears attacked with 
a species of leprosy, which devours at the same time 
its stalks, leaves, and fruit. The old wood and the 
roots are not the seat of any alteration. 

" The light patches of white dust with which the 
young shoots are covered, take, at the end of a few 
days, a gray color ; they form, in the places they oc- 
cupy, brown spots [De la Yergne, another writer, de- 
scribes them as brown, black, or violet], which remain 
separate or run together, according to their nearness 
or to the persistence of the malady. 

" This effect shows itself over the whole circumfer- 
ence of the shoot, but is more marked and more 
quickly produced on the upper side, where it is the 
most exposed to the sun's rays. These shoots grow 
but little. From the axils of their leaves issue nu- 
merous secondary branches of a particularly sickly 
aspect. This abnormal growth of stalk is a charac- 
teristic trait, and indicates a profound disturbance in 
the vegetation of the vine. It is local — that is to say, 
it will only be observed on those shoots that have 



14 The Sulphur-Cure. 

been invaded by the white dust, and later by the 
brown spots. 

" The youngest leaves at the ends of the branches 
are generally crisped ; they curl more or less, the un- 
der side within. Their upper sides are sprinkled with 
light white dust, in patches more or less irregular ; it 
is the same with their under sides ; it is always these 
which are the first and the most seriously attacked. 
When the leaf is covered with down, the cryptogamic 
vegetation forms on it a peculiar sort of felt easily 
recognizable. When the disease reappears on a vine 
(that has been attacked before), the first symptoms 
commence, almost always, by manifesting themselves 
on the under side of the young leaves by these patch- 
es of felt. The leaf -stem becomes covered with black 
spots,* like the stalk of the shoot from which it grows. 
The grapes attacked by the disease become likewise 
covered with white dust, but much more abundantly 
than the shoots and leaves ; sometimes they are com- 
pletely covered, sometimes invaded only here and 
there, on a single grain in a bunch, or even a portion 
of a grain. The more recent the disease, the more 
white the dust remains, and the more " greasy" to the 

* Before described as brown. I suppose that, as is true of spots 
produced by the vine-disease in this country, these are black to the 
naked eye, but brown when magnified. 



The O'idium. 15 

touch ; if it is brushed off by rubbing the surface of 
the grain, no traces of it will remain on the skin ; that 
will remain still intact. At the end of several days, 
however, the dust will turn gray ; then, if rubbed off, 
little black spots will appear scattered over the place 
it occupied." 

After remarking that these spots never go deeper 
than the outer skin either of the fruit or other green 
parts, and that the same spots slightly roughen the 
surface, and are the seat of disorganizations whose 
consequences are ruinous, hardening the skin (so 
much more delicate in the European grapes than in 
ours), so that, as the berries swell in growing, they 
crack open to the centre, often showing their pits. 
The same author goes on to say — 

"The loss is much more rapid when the attack 
comes just after blossoming. The small size of the 
berries renders the disorganization of their whole sur- 
faces easy; then they ce#se growing and dry up. 
When the attack finds the grape approaching matu- 
rity, it resists better. It seems to accomplish regular- 
ly the divers stages of its development ; but, at the 
moment of ripening, the grain wilts, and considerable 
loss ensues, especially if the crop is not immediately 
gathered." Again he says : 

" The vine may be attacked at any age and at all 



16 The Sulphur-Cure. 

epochs of vegetation, from the moment when the bud 
breaks out of its envelope down to the time when the 
leaves fall. It is easy to comprehend that between 
these two extremes there is a crowd of intermediate 
degrees, but at bottom the characteristics of the dis- 
ease are always the same : 

" Whitish dust (exhaling a musty odor) spread over 
the surfaces of the green parts to the exclusion of the 
old wood ; disorganizations caused by this dust, which 
is composed of microscopic mushrooms {o'idium Tuck- 
eri) ; evident trouble in the vegetation of the branch- 
es whose fruit, leaves, or stalks are invaded." 

M. de la Yergne agrees that, though the fungus in 
question has obtained the name of o'idium, it should 
properly be called an erysephe; while the author be- 
fore quoted speaks of it as " the o'idium, or erysephe 
of the vine." In common words, it is a fungus — a 
mushroom. De la Yergne claims to have discovered, 
as early as 1863, three different varieties of o'idium, 
which have successively followed the first, each one 
being less malignant than the one that came before 
it, and all of them less malignant than the original. 

In treating of the vine disease as known in Amer- 
ica, I will call it neither o'idium, cryptogam, erysephe, 
nor mucedine, but give it the name it commonly goes 
by, which is mildew. 



The Mildew. 17 



CHAPTER III. 

THE MILDEW. 

QOON after the o'idium got abroad in Europe, it 
^ became known that the vines of this country were 
being affected by a disease so nearly resembling it, to 
say the least, that, by most persons concerned, the two 
were supposed to be one and the same. Afterward, 
however, this came to be disputed, and, on very re- 
spectable authority, it was asserted that the fungus or 
mushroom, whose presence and growth on the vines 
produced, or rather constituted, the disease termed in 
Europe o'idium, was not the same as that which con- 
stituted the disease termed in America mildew, but 
was another 'and different one. 

Practically this distinction does not make any dif- 
ference, yet I regret it has been made ; for, although it 
is conceded that sulphur destroys one fungus as well 
as another, and is the well-known specific for diseases 
from fungus parasites, yet the mere fact that such a 
distinction has been made has seriously impeded the 



18 The Sulphur- Cure. 

progress in this country of that faith in the sulphur- 
cure which the triumphant success following its adop- 
tion on the other side of the water was otherwise cal- 
culated to promote. Therefore it is proper this mat- 
ter, microscopic as it is in every respect, should be de- 
cided one way or the other, and I agree it is time it 
should be done. And here it may seem strange that 
one should write on the subject of mildew without 
having an opinion on the point. If I am without one, 
however, it is only because I rested firmly in the be- 
lief that oidium and mildew were one and the same, 
and not two and different, until the opportunity had 
passed for making a thorough microscopic examina- 
tion. Before next September comes, I hope to resolve 
my own doubts at least. Meanwhile I may be al- 
lowed to doubt when, after seeking the opinions of 
distinguished chemists as well as others who have in- 
vestigated the subject, I find myself unable to recon- 
cile their conflicting judgments. 

Here are some of the points of difference that 
are claimed to exist between what is called oidium 
in Europe and what is called mildew in this coun- 
try. 

First, Though the effects on the fruit of the earlier 
attacks, which find it young and barely formed, are 
the same there as here, yet those forms of decay which 



The Mildew. 19 

follow the later attacks are generally different. In 
Europe we hear mostly of the fruit cracking open, 
while in America we notice chiefly the gray rot. I 
have observed, however, that the Nortons do crack, 
even to showing their seed ; and if our grapes of the 
Fox family, which comprises nearly all we cultivate 
besides the Nortons and Herbemont, had not such 
thick skins, I fancy they would crack too ; but they 
being defended, after reaching a pertain size, by a 
kind of armor too tough for the clamps of the little 
fungus to pierce, its ravages are confined to the 
more tender fruit -stems, and, those stems being 
blighted, the fruit dies, and gray rot, etc., are only 
the rottenness that follows death. 

Secondly, The effect of our mildew on the leaves is 
far less serious than w T hat the o'idium is reported to 
produce. But this may be because our leaves are 
thicker and tougher, and much more covered with 
down than those of the vine abroad. The compara- 
tively delicate foliage of the Delaware certainly gives 
way very readily before a serious attack, while the 
leathery clothing of the Concord seems able to bear 
unhurt an indefinite amount of gnawing, if indeed 
the fungus is able to fasten on it at all. It is here 
to be noted, however, that while o'idium attacks both 
sides of the leaf, I have never seen or been able to 



20 The Sulphur-Cure. 

learn of any case where our mildew has invaded the 
upper side. Let me also note that M. Mares express- 
es the opinion that neither the hardness or softness 
of the fruit, nor the thickness or thinness of their 
skin, nor the lightness or heaviness of the down cov- 
ering the foliage of the different varieties seem to 
make any difference with it. 

Thirdly, and more to the point. A representation of 
the mildew as seen by the microscope shows a fun- 
gus somewhat different in shape from the oidium as 
shown in engravings in European treatises. I myself 
can not say, nor will it be easy, I think, for any one 
to prove, that the differences thus shown are any 
greater than may well exist between two erysephes, 
or than distinguish the three varieties discovered by 
De la Yergne. It is pretty well agreed now that the 
European thing miscalled oidium is- an erysephe. Is 
our thing an erysephe ? Yes ; years before the " oidi- 
um" appeared in Europe, a German botanist named 
" Schwienitz," who lived many years in America, dis- 
covered here an erysephe which preyed on the grape- 
vines of the Labrusca family. Montague, the distin- 
guished French mycologist, who made the vine dis- 
ease a special study, referring to this discovery of the 
German, gives it as his opinion that it was either the 
same as the European erysephe, or else a very, near 



The Mildew. 21 

neighbor. Now, if M. Montagne can not tell ns the 
difference between them, it can hardly be of any 
practical importance to know it, and would certainly 
be little worth our while to look for it. And we may 
dismiss the subject with the reflection that, after all, 
the distinguished, pestiferous parasite may Jiave had 
its birth in our own country, and, though unnoticed, 
had a hand in much of the destruction that came 
upon our earliest vineyards before oidium was heard 
of any where, and which destruction was all of it un- 
justly attributed to " the rot? 

But, in whatever respects they may differ, the, oidi- 
um and mildew are alike in this : that each comes in 
the form of a fine whitish dust, which afterward turns 
grayish, and then brown or black — each appears at the 
same epochs and returns after the same intervals — 
each acts in the same manner on the young berries — 
each flourishes best in the same state of weather, 
namely, a season of heat following a season of wet, 
while a long dry term ^is equally unpropitious to 
the progress of each. Finally, each is effectually de- 
stroyed by sulphur, which is the only practical point 
in my story, and, if the reader doubts it, this book is 
written to teach him how to make researches and ex- 
periments which will satisfy his doubts, and to help 
him test for himself the question whether or not the 



22 The Sulphuk-Cuke. 

vine shall live and flourish in the land, or perish and 
die. 

Some confusion, both of words and ideas, has come 
from the habit we have fallen into of calling many 
of the consequences of mildew by the common name 
of rot. ]\pldew works its mischief by attaching itself 
to the surfaces of the leaf, the stalk, the stem, or the 
berry, and, as it grows, penetrating with its clamps, 
or grapples their outer skins, which it thereby dis- 
organizes. The result of the disorganization thus ef- 
fected is, sooner or later, the decay in some form of 
the parts attacked. Such decay, as noticed in the 
fruit, is commonly known as gray (or brown) rot, 
characterized by a mottled appearance under the sur- 
face, or" as " calf's eye," so called from its circular 
shadings of dull brown hue, like the eye of a dead 
calf, and which mostly begins on the side of the berry, 
while " gray rot" begins at the base, where the stem 
joins, or takes the form of a falling of the fruit as it 
ripens, through general debility of the whole plant. 
These are merely different symptoms of a disease — the 
only disease properly so called which the vine knows. 
Separate from these symptoms, and independent of 
their cause, is an affection to which most American 
vines are extremely subject, and which is the only af- 
fection properly called rot. It is the "Mack rot? 



The Mildew. 23 

whose characteristics, origin, and history I will here 
endeavor to set forth, both to enable the reader the 
better to understand mildew and its cure, and to 
teach him, so far as I may pretend to teach, how to 
manage the rot itself. 



24 The Sulphuk-Cuee. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE BLACK EOT. 

fT^HIS is an affliction of sufficiently serious nature, 
-*" resulting from bad drainage or bad ventilation, 
or both, in connection with peculiar conditions of the 
weather. It comes suddenly, with but few hours' 
warning at most. It appears at first in light brown 
spots, within which are often seen what looks like the 
gnawings of insects. These spots soon turn black — 
intense blue -black to the eye, but, seen through a 
magnifier, dark brown. They are generally round in 
form except on the leaves, where they are mostly an- 
gular and irregular. Spots of gray (or brown) rot 
begin at the base of the berry where the stem joins 
it, but spots of black rot are scattered indiscriminate- 
ly over the whole surface. A single one of them 
will often cover half the berry, causing it to cave in. 

Black rot is prone to seize upon the fruit-stem, into 

• 

which it will eat, leaving hollows like pits of smallpox. 
The result of such destruction of the substance of the 



The Black Rot. 25 

stem, where severe enough, is the subsequent decay of 
the one or more berries depending from and nourished 
by it, with much the appearance of gray rot (which 
last rot I attribute to the workings of mildew on the 
same stems). This result will be quick or slow, ac- 
cording to the degree to which the stem is injured. 
Spots of black rot, be they large or small, usually be- 
come dotted with little raised pimples of blacker hue 
than the rest of their surface, visible to the naked eye, 
and easily felt with the finger. As decay progresses 
it causes the discolored parts to cave in, and takes va- 
rious aspects like decay from any other cause. 

On the leaf black rot works quite slowly, and so it 
does on the stalk, but on the fruit or fruit-stems its 
ravages are rapidly accomplished. With a favorable 
change of weather it will go as quickly as it comes. 
This is seen where the state of weather that has 
brought it on is followed by a clear, bright atmos- 
phere and fair sky. Then the spots take a brighter 
color, and seem to dry away, leaving harmless traces 
of rust-like appearance, sometimes covering the in- 
dented surface of scars more or less deep, whose aft- 
er-effects will depend on their extent and the state of 
the atmosphere. The spots sometimes run together, 
or, rather, encroach upon each other, but otherwise 
they are apt to preserve their rounded and distinct 

B 



26 The Sulphur-Cure. 

shape. Sometimes they are bordered at the edges 
with a lighter shade of color. Black rot affects cer- 
tain varieties more than others, and, equally spotted 
with it, some grapes resist its action better than oth- 
ers, notably the Concords, owing to their thick skins 
and tough leaves. Its consequences are immediate, 
as when the berries are directly attacked; or conse- 
quential, as when they rot or atrophy through destruc- 
tion of the fruit-stems or loss of vigor to the whole 
plant from ravages on the stalks or leaves. In short, 
black rot, like mildew, has many and divers manifest- 
ations and consequences, but is itself unmistakable, 
its characteristic features being the round or round- 
ish and distinctly denned spots, their color black or 
blue-black to the naked eye, and dark brown when 
magnified, and the little black pimples which rough- 
en their surfaces, though these last — almost invaria- 
bly present on the berry — are frequently wanting on 
the other parts, in the earlier stages at least. But it 
is not a disease as mildew is, and medicine will not 
cure it. 

Black rot is worst on soils that are compact or 
damp, and not well drained and in badly-aired situa- 
tions. Fogs, frequent rains, and heavy dews are the 
active causes which produce it. A long and wet 
spring will predispose to it vines as well as other 



The Black Eot. 27 

plants, so as to insure a fresh attack with each recur- 
ring rain, or fog, or dew, followed by a hot sun. It 
is of the same nature with, or, rather, it is the same 
thing as, those mould spots which similar conditions 
cause to appear on apples, pears, and other fruit, and 
the blackness which dyes the silk of corn in wet sea- 
sons. It is carbon. In France they name it carbon, 
" Charbon," and, more scientifically, " Anthracnose," 
which means "Black sickness" for they have long- 
known it in France, and know no good of it either. 

The ancient Greeks, too, were acquainted with it ; 
and Theophrastus, who lived three hundred years be- 
fore Christ, has left us an account of it, which, though 
brief, enables us easily to recognize it. He described 
it as resembling rust in wheat, as causing a shrivel- 
ing of the fruit, as coming " in damp weather, when, 
after an abundant dew, the sun darts down his pow- 
erful rays.'\ He called it "Crambos." M. Mares, 
who resides in the South of France, thinks the Greek 
Crambos identical with the French " Charbon," 
which last he describes thus : 

" It makes its appearance after a prolonged dura- 
tion of dampness, when the weather is at the same 
time hot, heavy, and foggy, or after copious dews, 
and when, through an atmosphere burdened with 
vapor, the sun darts his ardent beams. But the al- 



28 The Sulphue-Cuee. 

terations of lieat and damp are never so serious in re- 
sults as when they follow a prolonged term of rainy 
weather." 

So much for the causes which produce it. For the 
effects of " Charbon," the same writer inf orms us that 
it makes irregular patches of black, sometimes bor- 
dered with yellow, to appear on the leaves, which 
cause them to curl downward, crisp, and fall [we 
must remember French grape-leaves are much more 
delicate than ours] ; that it injures the young stem so 
the fruit below the affected part will shrivel and fall 
off ; that it appears on the fruit only after it has at- 
tained some size, and in the shape of black spots, 
which harden and prevent its development. 

He also adds that " Charbon" attacks the vines all 
of a sudden, and the injury is done all at once ; that, 
when very recent, the injuries appear like brown 
spots or excoriations, as from insect bites ; that usual- 
ly several attacks occur in the course of one season ; 
that as often as the fog or dew are abruptly succeed- 
ed by sunshine, the attacks are renewed, and can 
readily be counted ; that the same kind of weather 
which brings rust to wheat, and spots pears and other 
fruit with black, causes " Charbon" on grapes. 

Many persons in this country, confounding black 
rot with the symptoms and effects of the fungus we 



The Black Rot. 29 

call mildew, and searching in this rot for the causes 
of mildew with a view to its cure, and having dis- 
covered beneath the skin of the afflicted part a fungus 
of quite another sort than that of the mildew devel- 
oped there, and which, growing beneath the skin, is, 
of course, inaccessible to sulphur, have thence infer- 
red that sulphur could not cure mildew. 

Now this subcutaneous fungus is of no sort of con- 
sequence either in relation to the curability of the 
black rot itself or to the curability of the mildew. 
Mares tells us that whatever fruit is affected by 
" Charbon," whether it be a mulberry, a pear, or an 
apple, there is a fungus present, concerning which, he 
further tells us, that it begins its life early enough to 
exist in those excoriations like the gnawings of in- 
sects which have been described, though it does not 
develop until several days later; that it is not the 
cause of the disease, hut its effect ; that it is very 
small, conical, and grows heneath the skin. 

I think all who have observed the progress of black 
rot will recognize it easily in the above description of 
the " Crambos" of old Greece and the " Charbon" of 
modern France, and unite in thanks to M. Mares for 
shedding so clear- a light on a dark subject. I hope, 
too, those who have suffered from this evil agent will 
take courage when they consider how, from imme- 



30 The Sulphur-Cure. 

morial time, those countries have endured its pres- 
ence, and their grape culture survived its attacks. 
And such as have been careful to distinguish be- 
tween the two will bear me witness that, as compared 
with .mildew, black rot is not so very serious a thing 
but that our culture can survive it. Nor is it so very 
trifling a thing either but that we should seek out and 
apply the proper means to prevent it. Those means 
are drainage and ventilation, as is w r ell known in the 
South of France. There they are careful also to 
plant in situations hard to drain, or where the air cir- 
culates badly, such varieties of vine only as are known 
to be least subject to the " Charbon." By such pre- 
cautions they are able to keep the evil within reason- 
able bounds. My own vineyard being at the top of 
one of the 600 feet Scioto County hills, and 200 feet 
above the usual range of Ohio River fogs, and thus 
exceptionally well situated, I was able, by draining it, 
to keep the black rot so effectually in check during 
the season of 1869 that its ravages were barely no- 
ticeable, except in an undrained corner close to a 
thick wood. And in that year of 1869 that rot rioted 
throughout that valley, let me tell you. The corn- 
silk turned black as if dipped in ink, and every hay- 
stack looked as if covered with a pall. Apples and 
pears were discolored and distorted by it,- and, as a 



The Black Rot. 31 

rule, only those grapes escaped the black destruction 
which the more swiftly-consuming mildew " ate to 
save them." But all sites and soils are not so favor- 
able for being drained and aired, nor so free from 
fogs, as the high and dry hill where my vines grow. 
And, from what I saw in less favorable situations, I 
can well believe that for certain varieties there are 
vineyards in which, during seasons like that of 1869, 
the evil would be too inveterate to resist. 

I am aware many persons have supposed gray (or 
brown) rot to be as distinct from mildew as black rot 
is, but observation will teach them that gray rot is 
only a consequence of attacks of mildew which come 
after the berry is more than half grown, and is the 
principal, and often the only form of injury which 
follows those attacks. They will also find, as I did, 
that sulphur prevents it, except where it (or some- 
thing like it) results from the gnawings of black rot 
on the fruit-stems. 



32 The Sulphur-Cure. 



CHAPTEE V. 

REASONS WHY THE SULPHUR-CURE IS NOT PRACTICED 
IN AMERICA. 

TT^AILURE of Experiments. — Many experiments 
■*- have been thought to fail because those who 
made them did not clearly know the distinction be- 
tween black rot on the one hand, and the gray rot, 
and other decay consequent on attacks of mildew, on 
the other hand. Some have thought mildew was one 
disease, gray rot another, and black rot another, while 
others have confounded all three in one general idea 
of " rot." And the observations in the last chapter 
on black rot, though sufficiently important in them- 
selves, have been partly introduced to explain how 
experiments which may have* well enough cured the 
particular attack of mildew against which they were 
directed, have, by those who conducted them, been 
considered failures merely because they did not also 
prevent black rot. Such persons may have applied 
sulphur enough to their vines, and yet their fruit has 



Not Practiced in America. 33 

rotted ; and seeing this, they have abandoned the field 
in despair, whereas, had they persevered and closely 
observed, they would have learned in the end, as I 
did, that though, despite their efforts, black rot con- 
tinued to work, even on grapes covered with sulphur- 
dust, yet that nothing else injurious had occurred; 
and would have found, when the season closed, that, 
although they had lost more or less of their crop from 
the " black sickness," yet that the far more terrible 
white one — the fungus of evil, the dire cryptogam of 
the accursed family of Mucedines — had not dared 
show his head. 

Attenuations of Sulphur, or compounds in which 
the power of that drug has been weakened by mixing 
it with other inefficacious substances either dry or in 
solution, have again caused failures. Such mixtures, 
tried at certain times and on certain varieties of vine, 
have, even in our warmer grape districts, sometimes 
succeeded. The same mixtures, however, under other 
and less favorable conditions, have failed, and, by con- 
sequence, the remedy has fallen into disrepute and 
been abandoned. Mixtures which weaken the medi- 
cine do very well in the colder vine-regions of France 
and Germany, and, with certain varieties and in sea- 
sons when the disease is mild, do very well, too, in 
warmer districts, like the South of France ; but ex- 
B2 



34 The Sulphur-Cue e. 

periments made in the last-named district establish 
the fact that under a warm sun, adulterated sulphur, 
even when applied by skillful hands, can by no means 
be absolutely relied on. Far less could it be relied 
on in the hands of new beginners, making their first 
experiments in this hot climate of ours, so much near- 
er resembling that of Southern France than that of 
Germany. It was because of this similarity of the 
climate of most of our grape region to that of the 
Mediterranean shore that I studied the sulphur-cure 
there rather than on the Rhine. 

Bad Tools will not do good work. The bellows 
hitherto relied on by the few who have attempted to 
combat mildew in America seem to have been made 
as complicated and expensive as could be contrived, 
whereas the best sulphur-bellows is the simplest and 
cheapest. An agricultural laborer who is asked to 
introduce into his accustomed routine of work a new 
series of operations, requiring care and attention to 
learn, and exactitude and fidelity to practice, ought 
not to be burdened at the outset with a clumsy, 
troublesome, inefficient implement; yet such have 
been all sulphur-bellows of American make I have 
yet been able to find. So great a disgust can they 
inspire, that a German who worked his own vineyard, 
and who tried sulphur on his vines, reported that it 



Not Practiced in America. 35 

cured them, but vowed lie would never try it again — 
" it was too much trouble," he said. So I put down 
bad bellows for another cause of failure. 

Ignorance of the Rules to follow in the practice 
of the sulphur-cure has been, after all, the chief cause 
of our failures. So far as, after much inquiry, I can 
learn, the translation of Mares's " Manual," which I 
embodied in my work on European Vineyards pub- 
lished last year, is the only manual of the cure yet 
printed in America ; and what little knowledge on 
the subject we have picked up has been adapted to 
cold climates, where the noxious erysephe makes com- 
paratively rare visits and has but a feeble growth, and 
not from climates analogous to our own. The prin- 
ciples to be followed are by no means difficult to learn 
or to follow, but they must be learned and followed, 
or there will be no success. If any American vine- 
dresser, who shall read the directions given in this lit- 
tle manual for sulphuring timely, appropriately, thor- 
oughly diseased vines, will afterward say he has fol- 
lowed those directions and yet has failed, then his 
failure may be set to the account of the cure itself ; 
otherwise to the account of his, and my, and our ig- 
norance. 

Belief that the American Mildew was a differ- 
ent Disease from the European Oidium has largely 



36 The Sulphur-Cure. 

operated against our adopting in this country the 
remedy which has been so incontestably successful 
in others. All that bears on the question of the iden- 
tity of the two diseases I have tried to give in Chap- 
ters II and III. But practically it is of no conse- 
quence whether they are different or are the same. 
Each is a fungus, and all fungi are cured with sul- 
phur. For the use of this remedy was not the result 
of chance, but of scientific deduction, and the same 
indications which pointed it out as the true, reliable, 
and scientific cure of o'idium, points to it now as an 
equally suitable cure of mildew. 

Delusive Hopes in new Soils and new Varie- 
ties have led our later enlisted and more enterpri- 
sing grape-growers to treat all information relating to 
vine disease as concerning not them, but only the un- 
fortunate owners of vineyards of Catawba in the 
older vine districts. And these, in turn, made de- 
spondent by the clamor in favor of lake-shore vine- 
yards and Concord vines, have abandoned hope and 
ceased to strive against the fate, as they deem it, 
which dooms them and their property to remediless 
ruin. The " lazy Spaniards" and " enervate Italians" 
have learned what Americans have refused to know, 
and done what Americans have refused to do. They 
have learned what was good for oidium, and they 



Not Practiced in America. 37 

have saved their grapes. Newly-planted vines and 
new varieties will, for a limited time, do well any 
where, and notwithstanding neglect and ill usage. 
Hence we from time to time hear of the wonderful 
productiveness of freshly-discovered grape districts, 
and especially of their immunity from disease. And 
doubtless the glowing accounts which come from one 
and another of the new fields of operation are to 
some degree founded in reason. We shall, for a long 
time, I hope, continue to hear cf discoveries of more 
propitious soils and more valuable grape plants. But 
whoever hopes, by traveling ever so far, or hybridiz- 
ing ever so industriously, to escape from the ordinary 
conditions of labor and vigilance to which all kinds 
of cultivation of the products of the earth are sub- 
jected by universal law, will find himself mistaken. 
Undrained soils will sooner or later breed the black 
rot, greedy pruning will sooner or later exhaust the 
best vineyards, and the spores of mildew, ever present 
in the atmosphere, will in their own good time find 
out the vines they so much love to afflict. In 1868 I 
visited some vineyards in a county into which grape- 
culture had but lately been introduced, and where 
hardly any thing but the Concord was known. Pass- 
ing from one beautiful field where perfect health pre- 
vailed, and the assurance of an eight-hundred-gallon 



38 The Sulphur-Cuke. 

crop to the acre gladdened the eye, for all was pur- 
pling for vintage time, and entering another adjoin- 
ing it, I found disease to be playing havoc there. 
" Why is this ?" inquired the owner ; " the soil and ex- 
posure of both fields are the same, and the vines in 
both are Concords." " How old is the healthy field V 
I asked. "Four years." "And the sickly one?" 
" Five." " Yery well," says I ; " see how your four- 
year olds do when they get to be five-year olds." The 
next year there came bad news from that county. 
And the same year, 1869, came also bad news from 
the new vine district of Crooked Lake, which had 
theretofore been esteemed so healthy. Now a safer 
place of refuge than the borders of Crooked Lake can 
hardly be imagined. The coldness of the climate is 
unpropitious to the development of mildew, and the 
decomposed shale* in the soil seems to have a posi- 
tive preventive power, owing to the sulphur it con- 
tains; and seems, besides, to have other elements 
which give strength, and strength resists all diseases. 

* Black shale, containing sulphur and various other ingredients 
beneficial to the grape, abounds not only in New York, where it first 
took the name of Hamilton Shale, but also in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and 
several other states. Many persons think its value is only beginning 
to be found out. It borders the eastern end of the shore of Lake 
Erie, and has a most marked development in the Valley of the Ohio 
below the mouth of the Scioto. It is not a coal shale. 



Not Practiced in America. 



39 



If such a region has had to succumb, it will be hard 
to find one that will long remain exempt. 

Taking the Catawba as a sample, the most rosy 
reports we have yet heard from any of the new dis- 
tricts are fully equaled by those published by Mr. 
Longworth and others in the earlier days of their 
success in the Ohio Valley. Yet what is the case 
to-day? Let all illusions be abandoned; let us look 
our foe closely in the face, feel his pulse, learn his 
symptoms, search out his causes and consequences, 
select the remedy, and faithfully administer it. 



40 The Sulphue-Ccee. 



CHAPTER YI. 

SOMETHING ABOUT THE EFFECTS OF SULPHUR ON 
FOLIAGE. 

TT is not for the purpose of meeting any objection 
-*- that may be abroad that sulphur hurts foliage, for 
I know of none, but because all facts bearing on the 
subject in hand should be noted, and as a caution it 
is prudent to give, that I here state a few facts of my 
own observing. 

Resolved to leave nothing to chance, and do all in 
the most thorough manner, I gave directions, which I 
saw well carried out, to spare neither material nor la- 
bor ; to give the disease enough of it. As a conse- 
quence of such heroic treatment, my Norton's Seed- 
lings suffered severely in their leaves. The more 
sickly of my Catawbas too, after having endured and 
nourished under five superabundant powderings, each 
one twice or thrice too large, were evidently injured 
by the sixth, though but few leaves fell off, and the 
fruit ripened well, and though the healthy vines of 



Effects of Sulphur on Foliage. 41 

the same variety, and the few Concords in the vine- 
yard, showed no signs of harm. Some Ives Seedlings 
in the neighborhood also suffered in their leaves, but 
only temporarily. I have also heard of an instance 
where some Herbemonts acted very much as did my 
Nortons. And, though unaware of any other cases 
like the above, I am prepared to learn that such have 
occurred, proving that certain of our vines are ex- 
ceptionally sensitive to the action of sulphur, if given 
in unusually large quantities. 

In Europe the effect on foliage of the drug in ques- 
tion is recognized as being so unqualifiedly beneficial, 
that they estimate the gain in productiveness obtain- 
ed by its use quite compensates for the cost of both 
material and labor ; and I feel sure, from what I have 
observed, that the same will prove true in this coun- 
try. I noticed, in my own vineyard, what all I had 
read and heard on the subject taught me to expect, 
that within ten days from the dusting on of the sul- 
phur the leaves grew deeper in hue, and showed a 
lively shining surface, as' if they had been varnished, 
while the shoots sprouted upward with fresh vigor 
and spirit. The effect on the slight incrustation, or- 
ganic and mineral, which will more or less cover and 
clog the pores of the leaf, as perspiration or dirt will 
clog the pores of the human skin, seems to be to 



42 The Sulphur-Cue e. 

loosen it, so that the rains wash the surface cleaner 
than otherwise they would, thus giving a better access 
of air, and enabling those "lungs of the vine," as 
leaves are called, to breathe freer. 

I also demonstrated the power of sulphur to de- 
stroy or chase away insects. Though appearing in 
considerable numbers on many of the vines just be- 
fore the first sulphuring in July, they suddenly disap- 
peared immediately after it, and, from that time on, 
hardly one sign of animal life could be seen through- 
out the field. But this complete extermination must 
be credited to the uncommonly strong doses given. 
Ordinarly less complete, yet still very valuable results 
in this respect are to be looked for. 

So evident and well-known in France is the stimu- 
lating power of sulphur on the vegetation, that at first 
serious fears were felt lest the vines should be injured 
by over-stimulation; but such fears have long since 
vanished. In that country, the only effect of sulphur 
analogous to that I have noticed as produced on the 
foliage of certain varieties in this, is a " scalding" of 
the fruit, which in the South of France sometimes re- 
sults from a sulphuring given during very hot weath- 
er, and on bunches exposed to the sun's direct rays. 
As a means to avoid this result, when feared, Mares 
recommends mixing the sulphur with lime, plaster, 



Effects of Sulphur on Foliage. 43 

etc., to weaken its power. And, should we in prac- 
tice find, what I greatly doubt, that a proper use of 
sulphur injures any of our vine-leaves, we have here 
a hint of the proper precaution to take. Of course 
it would be possible to use, with as good effect, very 
fine sulphur by itself, if we had implements to dis- 
tribute it thinly enough, which I think we might con- 
trive. 

I am sure that, in my anxiety to thoroughly test 
the value of treating mildew with sulphur, I put on 
more than twice what was needed, and twice as often 
as was needed. There is hardly any medicine that 
will not do harm if the doses are too large or too fre- 
quent. But I thought less of my vines than of the 
mildew I was dealing with. As I have before, and 
on another occasion said, " He who kills his first rat- 
tlesnake does not count the blows he gives." I think, 
too, the coarse flour of sulphur used held an excess 
of sulphuric acid, which injures foliage. 

Again, the only vines observed to be seriously hurt 
by sulphur were Herbemonts and Norton's Virginia 
Seedlings, both of which are known to take mildew 
very lightly when they take it at all, and would there- 
fore, it is probable, need but light treatment for their 
cure. There are several varieties of vine in the South 
of France which resist oidium much better than oth- 



44 The Sulphur-Cure. 

ers, and such are found to be easily curable with the 
attenuations of sulphur before mentioned. It would 
be so, no doubt, with the two American vines just 
named. Both of these, it should be observed, belong 
to the family of Vitis cestavilis, while it was the other 
family, Vitis labrusca, that Mr. Schweinitz discovered 
the erysephe to be fond of preying upon. Yery like- 
ly my Nortons would have escaped disease complete- 
ly, even had they received no sulphur at all, as they 
had always done down to the time when I dosed them 
so rudely. 

I dwell thus much on what relates to the Norton 
and the Herbemont, because I think them both of in- 
estimable value, not merely for their remarkable ex- 
emption from disease, but also for the excellence of 
their products as wine grapes, and quite agree with 
Mr. Sanders that it is to the juicy and delicate family 
of Y. ^Estavilis we should chiefly look for our supply 
of wine rather than to the thick-skinned and hard- 
pulped musky generation of " Foxes," albeit the Ca- 
tawba and Delaware, neither of which should by any 
means be despised,, have come out of it. 



Effects of Sulphur in the Wine. 45 



A 



CHAPTER VII. 

EFFECTS OF SULPHUR IN THE WINE. 

BAT) flavor is sometimes communicated to wine 
from the remains of sulphur on the grapes, and 
serious objections to the use of the remedy were at 
one time raised on this account. This taste it has, 
however, been found easy to get rid of by drawing 
off. If one operation does not suffice, a second in the 
manner prescribed below will be sure to succeed. 

Einse carefully your empty cask, first with cold, 
and then with warm water, then again with cold ; for 
every forty gallons it will hold, pour in a quart of 
clean water, and leave it there. Burn within the 
cask, for every forty gallons it will hold, one square 
inch of rag or wick incrusted with sulphur by being 
dipped in it while melted ; close the bung tightly, and 
roll and shake the cask to let the water within it ab- 
sorb well the vapors of sulphurous acid produced by 
the burning. Into the cask thus prepared draw your 
wine, doing this by means of buckets, and not by any 



46 The Sulphur-Cure. 

of the modes contrived to exclude the air, since con- 
tact with it helps to disinfect the wine. 

But be careful to leave all lees behind ; therefore 
do not tip the cask. The thicker wine remaining 
with the lees must be settled by putting it in a small- 
er vessel, and then drawnig off by itself in the same 
way as the other. Any portion of lees carried into 
the fresh cask under the influence of a slight subse- 
quent fermentation will again form sulphureted hy- 
drogen, which constitutes the bad taste in question. 

The above is from De la Yergne's " Practical In- 
structions." 

This sulphureted hydrogen decomposes when 
brought in contact with the sulphurous acid pro- 
duced by burning the sulphur-coated rag or wick, 
#nd thus the objectionable flavor passes off. But it 
will be slight enough to go away in the ordinary 
drawing off which must necessarily be performed for 
other purposes, unless sulphur has been applied to 
the vines late in the season, and in needlessly large 
quantities, and no heavy rain has come to wash it off, 
nor sufficient heat intervened to vaporize it away. 

But the slight inconvenience of this sulphur flavor, 
so easily got rid of, is an inconsiderable evil compared 
with what results when, in absence of the proper rem- 
edy, the mildew, or its remains, passes into the wine. 



Effects of Sulphur in the Wine. 47 

For which reason it is always well to sulphur vines 
whenever any considerable attack of the disease oc- 
curs late in the season, even though it come too late 
to injure the fruit ; for by fastening on such parts of 
the fruit-stems as yet remain green, it can maintain a 
•foothold until vintage, and so find entrance into the 
press or vat. 

M. Mares thinks the small quantity of sulphureted 
gas that will ordinarily be found in the new wine is 
valuable to preserve it, and thinks, too, the wine made 
of sulphured grapes is more even in quality, has a 
brighter color — very important in red wine — and 
keeps better than other wine ; while De la Vergne 
says the time will soon come when those who buy 
wine of the producer will be glad to hear him say, 
" My vines were thoroughly sulphured ;" and we all 
know that in commerce it has long been used to fu- 
migate wine-casks, without complaint being made of 
any bad effect resulting. 



48 The Sulphur- Cure. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 

DIFFERENT PREPARATIONS AND MIXTURES OF SULPHUR. 

T3 O WDERED sulphur is made in two forms, one 
-*- by sublimation and the other by grinding. Sub- 
limated sulphur, commonly known as flour of sulphur, 
is usually finer than the other, and adheres better to 
surfaces against which it is flung. On the other hand, 
it contains six or eight times more impurity in form 
of sulphuric acid than the other, and costs considera- 
bly more. A good deal of inferior flour is made that 
is no finer than the ordinary qualities of ground. 
The value of powdered sulphur in curing the vine- 
disease depends on its fineness, other things being 
equal, since it is by the number of its grains its power 
must be estimated, and not by their size or weight ; 
and, moreover, the finer the grains are, the better they 
adhere. The comparative fineness of two given sam- 
ples can be pretty well ascertained by first weighing 
and then measuring them. The larger the bulk, the 
finer will be the quality ; and the less the bulk, the 
coarser will be the quality. 



Preparations and Mixtures. 49 

But such a test, though sufficient for practical ex- 
actness where all the qualities to be judged are either 
flour of sulphur or else all ground sulphur, would fail 
to give a true idea of the comparative value of the 
two kinds in question, because the form of the grains 
of the flour is such that with equal fineness they ad- 
here better to surfaces than those of the other kind, 
and because the ground is more movable — more dust- 
like than the other, and flies more readily out of the 
bellows or dredge-box ; so that, fineness being equal, 
a pound of the flour will go farther than a pound of 
the ground. Care must be taken, when making the 
measurement, to pack the mass as little as possible, 
since but slight pressure would be required to pack 
the finer article within smaller space than the coarser 
occupied. 

For a more scientifically correct test, M. Chancel, 
of Montpellier, in France, has invented the following 
method : 

Weigh five "grammes" for instance, of the sul- 
phur to be tested, and put it in a cylindrical tube of 
glass, divided off by a scale into a hundred equal por- 
tions. For five grammes the capacity of the tube 
should be twenty-five cubic " centimetres" so each di- 
vision or degree of the scale will represent about one 

C 



50 The Sulphur-Cure. 

fourth of a " centimetre."* That the mouth of the 
tube may be easily closed with the finger, its diame- 
ter should be about three fourths of an inch. In such 
a tube the sulphur will of course pack itself unequal- 
ly. To correct the inequality, pour in gradually sul- 
phuric ether, and shake until all the sulphur has en- 
tered into suspension ; then fill up with more of the 
ether ; shake again ; set the tube aside and allow the 
contents to settle. The powder will pack itself regu- 
larly, and occupy within the vessel a space proportion- 
ate to its lightness — that is, its fineness. At the end 
of five minutes, if the experiment be with flour of 
sulphur, it will have settled entirely, and the result 
can be read on the scale. The better the sulphur, 
the higher will be the degree to which it reaches. 

Exact as this test is for ascertaining fineness where 
applied to ground sulphur alone or flour of sulphur 
alone, it is only approximately so when the one kind 
is compared with the other, as the difference in the 
shape of their grains causes them to pack differently 
in the glass. Experiments made in the above mode 
by M. Mares gave the following results : 

" Good flours occupied in the tube from 50 to 70 
divisions of the 100. 

* A "gramme" is about twenty-three grains, and one hundred lineal 
centimetres measure about thirty-nine inches. 



Preparations and Mixtures. 51 

" Flours of superior quality, very fine and homo- 
geneous, filled from 75 to 90 divisions, and some were 
found, though rarely, which went up to 95 and even 
100. 

"Inferior flours were found which did not rise 
higher than from 35 to 40. Such hardly merit the 
name of flour of sulphur. They reveal to the touch 
much gresil, as little balls of sulphur are called in 
which the coarser qualities are apt to abound, and are' 
very heavy. 

"When the experiment is made with ground sul- 
phur, a good deal more than five minutes must be al- 
lowed for the mass to settle, which is because this 
kind mixes with the ether differently from the other, 
forming a kind of paste. . ■ 

" The greater part of the ground sulphur of com- 
merce, made from rolls, measured in the tube from 
35 to 40. The finest and purest I could obtain went 
up to 60 and 70. Common qualities of ground, of 
the fineness indicated by 36 of the scale, after being 
passed through a sieve of silk, indicated 43 ; this last, 
pounded in a mortar of agate, showed 60." 

Ground sulphur seems to be as yet unknown in the 
American market. It may, however, be found that 
it will be economical for us to employ it on our vines 
if we can obtain a very fine quality of it, and very 



52 The Sulphur-Cttke. 

cheap as compared with the other kind; and I have 
taken means to import a specimen of what is now 
commonly used in Italy, with a view of comparing it 
with the flour of sulphur made in America. It will 
follow, from what has just been quoted, that the ques- 
tion is a complex one of cost and quality. 

Both kinds will cure the disease if brought in con- 
tact with it, and though in Europe disputes as to which 
*is most economical still continue, both continue to be 
used. As the result of his own experience, M. Mares 
says : " I have tried ground sulphur on a large scale, 
and have obtained with it good results. Many others 
have done the same, and with like success. We must, 
therefore, admit its efficacy against the disease. Still 
I must say that the effects of the flour have been the 
most marked, and have determined me to give it the 
preference. 

" Employing in my experiments flour of sulphur of 
55 to 60 degrees of fineness according to the above 
scale, and ground sulphur of 35 to 40 degrees, I had 
to use on a given number of vines 75 per cent, more 
of the latter than of the former ; that is to say, 100 
pounds of the flour went as far as 175 pounds of the 
ground." 

M. de la Yergne is even more positive than M. 
Mares in preferring the sublimated article. And yet 



Preparations and Mixtures. 53 

I think it is worth our while to look into the question 
for ourselves, not merely for the reasons I have above 
suggested, but because our present tariff puts so high 
a duty on flour of sulphur that none of it is imported, 
and we are forced to obtain what we may need from 
two or three large manufactories which enjoy the 
monopoly of the business. Thus, while in Trance se- 
lections can be made from the products of a large 
number of rival manufacturers, here we are reduced 
almost to Hobson's choice. Another unpleasant ef- 
fect is that we are obliged to pay in gold for our sul- 
phur twice what Frenchmen pay ; and what is curi- 
ous too is that, while the government compels us to 
pay this large price, not a cent of it goes into the gov- 
ernment treasury. 

Our manufacturers probably can make as fine sub- 
limated sulphur as any in Europe. The question is, 
Will they find it profitable to do so ? And to help 
them to a decision of this last question, we, who are 
likely to be such large consumers, may as well in time 
cast about us for a resort in case of need. 

It costs four or five times as much to sublimate 
(distill) sulphur as it does to grind it. Grinding it 
could be well done, I should think, in a plaster-mill ; 
but the process is dangerous, and, unless it be care- 
fully managed, the mill will take fire. To refine the 



54 The Sulphur- Cure. 

crude article, all needed is to melt and run it into 
box-wood moulds, and there suddenly cool it, which 
converts it into what are known as " rolls." 

Flour of sulphur is known from the other by its 
much brighter color and by being softer when rubbed 
between the fingers. Grains of the flour, when seen 
in the microscope, appear as round balls, while those 
of the other are of irregular and broken shapes. 

Various mixtures of Sulphur with other substan- 
ces in powder, such as lime, plaster, etc., have been 
recommended, and are used to a considerable extent. 
As the value of such attenuations is somewhat under 
discussion in this country, it may be well to give in 
this place the conclusions to which a committee of 
the Agricultural Society of the Gironde, in France, 
came, after a series of experiments conducted by 
them in the year 1861, which, for thoroughness, I 
would gladly see emulated in this country. The re- 
port of the committee sums up as follows : 

" These experiments prove that oidium is cured by 
powdered sulphur, no matter what be the shape of its 
particles, nor whether it be used by itself, or mixed 
with twice its weight of plaster, for the ground sul- 
phur, as well as the mixture of plaster and sulphur, 
has repressed the oidium at each application your 
committee made with these two powders. But the 



Preparations and Mixtures. 55 

same experiments also prove that the curative action 
of sulphur is more durable when applied in the form 
of good flour of sulphur. They prove, moreover, that 
a given quantity of well-made flour of sulphur has 
more virtue than double the quantity of ground sul- 
phur, or three times the quantity of sulphur and plas- 
ter ; so that, to perform the same duty, it is necessary 
to repeat the operation of sulphuring of tener with the 
two last powders than with the first, and, in point of 
view of economy of material and labor, the advant- 
age, according to these experiments, remains with the 
good flour of sulphur. [The report states that all 
these powders were of the best quality and fineness.] 

" Moreover, practice concurs with theory to prove 
the inferiority of all mixtures of sulphur with other 
kinds of dust. 

"Experience proves that dust from the road, ashes, 
lime, charcoal, mineral coal, piaster, and other sub- 
stances, in a pulverized state, have not by themselves 
any power in curing the disease. 

" In mixing any one or more of these inert dusts 
with sulphur, you impart no virtue to it, any more 
than you increase the strength of a good wine by di- 
luting it with water. 

"On the other hand, although but a very small 
quantity of sulphur is needed in contact with the oi'di- 



56 The Sulphur-Cure. 

um to destroy it, yet there must be a minimum, less 
than which would fail of that end. 

" That limited quantity, fixed by experience, is such 
quantity as, if well scattered, is sufficient to powder 
with sulphur all the green parts of the vine, so that a 
branch, or a leaf, or a bunch, looked at against the 
light, shows the grains very close together on all points 
of its surface. 

" If great intervals existed "between the grains of 
sulphur and the oidium, whose organs are so extraor- 
dinarily loose, could it not maintain its place in cer- 
tain cases and continue to develop itself ? 

" Now the quantity of sulphur indispensable to pen- 
etrate and envelop thus with a light cloud of dust the 
green parts of a vine could not be properly spread if 
it were mixed with a double or triple quantity of in- 
ert matter. 

" Supposing the mixture perfect, each grain of sul- 
phur must be separated from another grain by two or 
three grains of the other material. 

" But the mixture is never perfect. Do what you 
will, the magnifying-glass will always show the pure 
sulphur resting in masses, more or less large, by the 
side of masses, more or less large also, of the material 
put with it. 

" It is, then, evident, that if you spread on the sur- 



Preparations and Mixtures. 57 

face of the plant a quantity of the mixture only equal 
to the quantity of sulphur needed to preserve that 
plant, you will not obtain the effect desired. 

" But if you must employ, to do the work that one 
pound of pure sulphur would do, three pounds of a 
mixture whereof one third is sulphur and the other 
two thirds inert matter, why not, by means of well- 
made instruments, spread upon the vines to be cured 
the one pound of sulphur by itself, and save the cost 
of the other useless ingredients, as well as the labor 
of handling them ? 

" It appears, besides, that those useless ingredients 
diminish, to a certain degree, the action of the useful 
one, since the pure flour of sulphur employed by our 
committee produced a more durable effect than a 
triple quantity of the mixture, one third of which 
was sulphur. 

" Again, that which our experiments have enabled 
us to affirm concerning a mixture of two parts of 
plaster with one of sulphur only confirms the result 
arrived at by trials made in the Gironde since 1859 
by many different persons, as well with the above 
compound as with others, which the minutes of a 
great number of your sessions will attest." 

A LIQUID PREPARATION OF SULPHUR AND LlME is oft- 
en recommended. It is prepared by mixing together 

C2 



58 The Sulphur-Cue e. * 

equal quantities by weight of sulphur and newly- 
slacked lime, and boiling them in eight times their 
weight of water, during ten minutes, in an iron ves- 
sel. After settling, the liquid is drawn off clear, put 
in bottles, and well corked. For use, one gallon of 
this is mixed with a hundred gallons of water, and 
with the mixture thus prepared the vines are syr- 
inged. Thorough experiments made in different parts 
of France have resulted in the abandonment of this 
" sulphur of calchium," as they there call it. It costs 
little, but must be frequently renewed on the vines. 
Its liquid form is objectionable, and, after all, it is 
thought the only virtue it possesses rests in the sul- 
phur. Those who might feel disposed to try this 
preparation should not attempt to vary the propor- 
tions of the ingredients, for a given weight of sulphur 
will combine with the same weight of lime, and with 
no more. 

To save the trouble of inventing and trying other 
methods for curing the vine-disease, I will here men- 
tion a few that have been fairly tried in France and 
found to be failures : 

1. Painting the old wood, after stripping off the 
loose bark, with a solution of sulphate of copper, four 
pounds of the sulphate to one hundred pounds of 
water. 



Preparations and Mixtures. 59 

2. Painting with an alkaline, soapy liquid, envelop- 
ing as active agent either arsenious acid, or a salt of 
arsenic, or sulphuret of soda. 

3. Coal tar, smeared on the old wood after strip- 
ping off the bark. 

4. Whitewash. 

5. Washing the fruit with soap-suds. 

6. Fumigating under a cover with burning sulphur. 

7. Quicklime, ashes, plaster, and other kinds of dust. 

8. Scorching or singing the vines after winter prun- 
ing by means of torches. 

9. Scalding with hot water, at the above epoch. 

10. Brushing the surface of the fruit. 

11. Burying the vine. 

12. Pruning early. 

13. Pruning late. 

14. Pinching the buds. 

15. Layering the entire vine. 

16. Layering the branches only. 

17. Grafting. 

18. Different kinds of manures. 

19. Painting with potato-glue mixed with sulphur. 
Many of the above, it should be remarked, had a 

measurable success, but none were found fit to adopt 
in practice. Layering the whole vine, I am led to 
think, might succeed with some varieties, and in fa- 



60 The Sulphur-Cure. 

vorable soils and situations. I found the people of 
Burgundy and Champagne thinking favorably of it, 
and disposed to attribute their exemption from the 
disease to their mode of cultivation, which involves 
layering ; but those are cold vine-districts. 



Implements Proper to Use. 



61 



CHAPTEE IX. 

IMPLEMENTS proper to use. 

HPIIE Bellows, of simple construction, invented by 
-*- M. Vergnes, is the most approved implement yet 
discovered. It has been improved upon by M. de la 
Vergne, and the improvements patented. 




Its dimensions are those of a common kitchen bel- 
lows. The boards are of poplar, two fifths of an inch 
thick, and well seasoned. There is no metal about it, 
except the tin pipe (or nozzle), and the tacks which 
fasten on the leather. It is thus seen to be very light, 
a most important consideration. 

In the middle of the upper board is a round hole 
one inch and a half in diameter, to which is fitted a 
stopper attached by a cord to the bellows. 



62 



The Sulphur-Cure. 



The pipe is in one piece, regularly curved, or in 
several pieces jointed with solder to form the proper 
turn. The outside end, or mouth, is covered with a 
wire-gauze sieve of tinned wire, whose meshes are a 
twelfth of an inch square, giving 144 of them to the 
square inch. Round this sieve is a trumpet-shaped 
addition, with openings in the sides, forming around 
the sieve a sort of little railing to protect it against 
any dampness which may be upon the vines. 

Of M. de la Yergne's improvements, the most im- 
portant is that which protects the leather from de- 
struction through corrosion by the sulphur or other 
material used. Another regulates the quantity of the 
charge, and another still the volume of the discharge. 

A canvas Bag, fitted with a tin discharge-pipe, and 
large enough to hold four or five pounds of sulphur, 
is hung round the neck, and carries the supply with 
which to renew the charge of the bellows as often as 
that is exhausted. 




Implements Pkopee to Use. 



63 



If, however, two or three are engaged in the work, 
it is greatly expedited by adding to them a boy, 
whose duty shall be that of "powder-monkey." He 
will be kept busy by giving him three spare bellows 
to charge with sulphur from a stationary supply, and 
carry them to the men, receiving in return their 
empty ones again to be filled. In such case no bag 
is needed. 

The Dredge-box is made of tin, in different forms, 
two of which are represented below. The smaller 
end, into which the sulphur is introduced, closes with 
a snugly-fitting cap or cover. The large end has a 
double bottom of tin pierced with very fine holes, 
through which the sulphur is to be shaken out ; and 
there are also a few cross-pieces of iron wire fixed 
about an inch above the upper one of the two plates 





64 The Sulphur-Cure. 

forming the double bottom, and which serve to break 
up the lumps. I have seen very good dredge-boxes 
of American make, with bottoms of fine brass-wire 
gauze. I thought these too fine, and removed one of 
them ; but it might be well to retain the double sieve, 
though making the upper one coarser than the other. 
The meshes of the one should measure about one 
twelfth of an inch across, and of the other about one 
twenty -fourth. The length of such boxes is from 
eight to ten inches, and the diameters from three to 
four inches. 

The dredge-box is common in most of the vine- 
countries of Europe, and, though a good deal more 
wasteful of sulphur than the bellows, is useful for 
many purposes where the latter would not work 
well ; as, for instance, to sulphur in May, when the 
young shoots are quite small, or late in summer, 
when, as sometimes happens, only the fruit-bunches 
need the operation, or to use for branches of un- 
staked vines which droop on the ground. 

The tufted Dredge-box is the same just described, 
except that it has the addition of a tuft made of wool- 
en yarn, four inches long, fastened to the larger end, 
which tuft receives the sulphur as it issues from the 
box, and sifts and disperses it in finer dust than would 
be shaken out but for its interposition. Mares con 



Implements Proper to Use. 65 

siders the tufted box an improvement on the other, 
of which he has a poor opinion ; while De la Yergne 
thinks it good for little or nothing, and praises the 
other. Both kinds are used in Europe, and both 
should be tried here. 

A little Brush, formed of a bunch of coarse bris- 
tles tied together, should be carried with the bellows, 
to keep the sieve at its mouth free and open. 

Other implements have been invented besides those 
I have described, especially bellows mounted with dif- 
ferent sorts of tin boxes and funnels, which, after be- 
ing tried and condemned elsewhere, have come across 
the water to plague the few of us who have had en- 
terprise enough to try the sulphur - cure, and have 
helped such to make failures. I have tried many of 
them, and read and heard of others. Their faults are : 
Sieves, often double ones, quite too fine ; mouths too 
contracted ; valves to draw in the air, which, always 
coming in by one way and going out by another, inev- 
itably packs the dust against the meshes of the sieve, 
instead of which the machine should breathe in and. 
blow out through the same hole, thereby continually 
cleansing the meshes as the Yergnes does; compli- 
cated construction, with its easily imagined difficul- 
ties ; heaviness ; weak construction, which, in connec- 
tion with the tendency to clog, involving the need of 



QQ The Sulphur-Cuke. 

frequent shakings, makes them soon shake to pieces ; 
prices twice or thrice equal to that of the simpler and 
better article. In short, they are well adapted not 
to do the work, but to wear the muscles, tear the 
nerves, and exhaust the patience of him who handles 
them. Until some genius shall invent precisely the 
right thing, the Vergnes bellows and the dredge-box 
are the only implements to use. 



Weather for Sulphuring. 67 



CHAPTEK X. 

WEATHER SUITABLE FOR SULPHURING. 

ONLY in the greatest emergency would it do to 
sulphur vines while it rained. I know it has 
been recommended, and is even practiced in the cold- 
er grape regions of Europe, to perform the operation 
early in the day, in order that the dew on the lower 
side of the leaves shall cause the powder to stick 
there ; but such is by no means the practice in those 
hotter countries where the disease is strong. The sul- 
phur, being insoluble in water, acts on the disease only 
in the form of vapor, and it will not turn to vapor ex- 
cept in a heat equal to about 68° Fahrenheit. There 
is no use in putting it on unless the thermometer 
shows that temperature to exist in the vineyard at the 
time it is put on, or afterward and before it is blown 
or washed away by wind or rain. Fortunately, a 
greater heat is required to bring the mildew into life 
than to produce the vapor which destroys it. As 
much as two or three hours at least of the right tern- 



68 The Sulphite- Cure. 

perature are needed to make the remedy take effect ; 
and, if a considerable rain should fall before such 
time has elapsed, the work must be done over again 
within two or three days afterward. After the leaves 
have grown large enough to shelter the fruit, and to 
some extent each other, as in late June, such a re- 
newal becomes less important. 



How to Conduct the Work. 69 



CHAPTER XL 

HOW TO CONDUCT THE WORK. 

fT^HE dredge-box is of course worked by shaking 
-*- the sulphur out of it. Care should be taken not 
to overload it, nor to dredge too much powder on a 
given surface, the liability to an extravagant expendi- 
ture of material being the chief objection to this im- 
plement. In other respects, the rules given below for 
using the bellows sufficiently instruct in the use of 
the dredge-box. 

The proprietor must first learn how to blow the 
bellows,. and then teach his assistants. The motions 
of the handles must be short and quick, and not long 
and slow ; they must also be regular, and, so far as 
can be, uninterrupted. When operating on a vine 
from the top downward, the cessation of motion as 
the bottom is reached is apt to clog the pipe. This 
is corrected by briskly shaking the instrument on re- 
commencing. In whatever position it is held, it need 
not get clogged if, while changing direction, the quick, 



70 The Sttlphur-Cuke. 

short motions are uninterruptedly continued. The ob- 
ject to be kept in view is to put a little of the sulphur 
every where, but not a great deal any where. "The 
work is well done" says Mares, " when, on taking a 
leaf or fruit hunch, and holding it against the light, 
numerous grains of sulphur, no matter how small, 
are seen to cover all points of the surface. The work 
is ill done, on the contrary, when the vine or the soil 
at its foot show lumps or patches of the material." 

De la Yergne says : "A workman who handles his 
bellows well disperses the sulphur every where equal- 
ly, and the vines he has gone over are perfectly well 
covered, while, at the same time, one who looked at 
them in passing would not discover, except by the 
smell, they had been sulphured at all." 

It is best always to begin by blowing from the bot- 
tom of the vine upward to the top, all the while throw- 
ing the sulphur under the leaves and toward the centre, 
and then proceeding from top to bottom, all the while 
throwing the sulphur on the upper sides of the leaves, 
and so all round the plant. The workman should 
walk entirely around each vine as he dusts it ; or if, 
it being on a trellis, he can not do tins, he should pass 
down the line, sulphuring on one side as he goes, and 
then pass up again, doing the same on the opposite 
side. The motions for each plant should be the same, 



How to Conduct the Work. 71 

so that, after a time, a habit of regularity and exacti- 
tude may be acquired that will insure thoroughness 
and avoid omissions. The negligence of workmen is 
the frequent cause of partial sulphurings being need- 
ed to cure particular vines on which the disease was 
imperfectly cured, so that, in a few days, it breaks out 
afresh. 

The workman should keep his eye on the clouds of 
dust he blows from his bellows, to see how they drift 
and where they lodge, and so manage with regard to 
distance, and position, and the course of the wind, as 
that they shall go where they are wanted. 

It is a great fault to overcharge the bellows. A 
pound is the most that should go in at one time. He 
must also acquire the habit of knowing when all has 
been expended and the time has come to load again. 

If, as sometimes happens, sulphur-dust is found to 
hurt the eyes of the workmen, they must be furnished 
with goggles, such as stone-cutters often wear. Out- 
side shirts or blouses of close cotton or linen stuff 
should also be supplied them, to protect their clothes. 
Care should be taken to so instruct and encourage 
them at the outset that they do not take an early dis- 
gust, which will make them either quit the work or 
do it negligently. Properly equipped, and taught, 
and encouraged, they will soon find the work to be 



72 The Sulphur-Cure. 

not at all unpleasant ; whereas, if clumsy, heavy im- 
plements are put in their hands, to weigh down their 
arms, to worry them by frequently becoming obstruct- 
ed or getting out of repair, or with holes in them 
through which the dust blows out backward, or if left 
to find out for themselves how to meet all the little 
difficulties which are apt to beset every new begin- 
ning, they will be like to leave you suddenly in the 
most pressing exigency that can come upon a vine- 
grower. 



Peopee Times foe Sulphueing. 73 



CHAPTER XII. 

OF THE PROPER TIMES FOR SULPHURING. 

TTNDOUBTEDLY the true principle is to sulphur 
*^ the vines as early as the disease appears, and 
again as often as it reappears. But, in order to do 
this, we must be able to recognize the appearance of 
the disease, and, furthermore, to know of its approach 
a little while before it invades the whole vineyard, 
for it works quickly. And although, in the beginning 
of our experience, few of us will be able to discern in 
season the signs of warning, and must rely on sulphur- 
ing at stated times — the rules for which I will pres- 
ently give — yet it is proper we should at once begin 
to learn how to recognize the presence of the disease, 
and how to get warning of its approach. 

HOW TO RECOGNIZE THE PRESENCE OF THE MlLDEW. 

—It is only with the first stage of the disease that we 
have to do, for all which comes afterward is but the 
decay in different forms, by wilting, cracking, rotting, 
etc., which results from the first stage, and it is only 

D 



74: The Sulphur-Cure. 

in that stage sulphur or any other remedy can do 
jrood. On the leaves, stalks, and fruit-bunches there 
will come spots of what appears to the naked eye as 
only a fine white powder, but which, examined under 
a microscope, prove to be hosts of little fungi (mush- 
rooms). At first they may be brushed off with the 
finger, without leaving on the surface where they 
rested any injury or appearance of injury ; but, if al- 
lowed to remain long enough, will throw down little 
claws, which will pierce and grapple to the outer skin, 
and, by thus wounding it, cause all the decay which 
renders mildew such an affliction to the vine. Most 
American vines are so covered with down in every 
part, there is some risk an unpracticed observer may 
sometimes mistake it for the powder which reveals 
the presence of the little innumerable mushrooms in 
question. Where the mass of them is considerable, 
as I have found it on one of the new hybrids, the 
musty odor exhaled, and which French writers all 
mention as being peculiar to the oidium, can be easily 
recognized, though not so easily forgotten. Some- 
times, too, we may be deceived by fine cobwebs fresh- 
ly woven, or even by spots of dust splashed upon the 
lower leaves by rain. 

To get Warning of the Approach of Oidium, it 
is the custom in Europe to establish in each vineyard 



P kopek Times for Sulphuring. 75 

several " Ceps moniteurs" as they are called, or sig- 
nal vines, as we will term them ; for, whenever a gen- 
eral attack impends, certain individual vines will be 
observed to catch the disease a few days in advance 
of the great body of their own variety ; and as differ- 
ent varieties take the disease at different times and in 
different ways, therefore each variety must have its 
own signal vines. We should look for such in de- 
pressed places — on the borders of alleys, under the 
shade of trees, or where cold and damp exhalations 
come from some adjoining woods or swampy ground. 
When discovered and well tested, they should be 
marked so as to be easily found. 

Having established proper signal vines, the ap- 
proach of danger can always afterward be known by 
simply watching them, without the need of going over 
the whole vineyard. As soon as any of them give 
warning, all the vines of their variety should be sul 
phured without delay. But first the signal vines 
themselves should receive a thorough operation, in 
order that another and false alarm do not too early 
follow in consequence of their not being radically 
cured ; and for the same reason, in serious cases, 
they may need a second operation a few days later. 

Until we shall have learned well how to recognize 
the presence of the mildew, and have established our 



76 The Sulphur- Cure. 

signal vines, we shall be obliged to rely on sulphur- 
ing at certain fixed times, as at first they were obliged 
to do in France, and as new beginners there are still 
advised to do. In such case the recommendation of 
Mr. Mares is to sulphur regularly once in every twen- 
ty days , beginning as soon as the young shoots are 
two inches long, and continuing until the changes of 
color in August tell that the ripening process has be- 
gun in the fruit, which saves it from farther danger. 
This is the simple rule I followed during the season 
of 1869, and which effectually saved my crop. 

M. De la Vergne recommends novices such as we 
to sulphur, first, just as blossoming is about to begin; 
secondly, as soon as blossoming has ended — two epochs 
which in his district occur, the first between May 20th 
and June 10th, and the second between June 20th 
and July 10th — and thirdly, toward the end of July, 
when the August growth begins, terminating at the 
same epoch with the rule Mares gives, for a sulphur- 
ing late in July will ordinarily save the fruit until 
ripening time. These three operations, he thinks, will 
generally prove sufficient. It will be seen they are 
separated one from another by thirty days, or there- 
about. 

Mr. Du Brieuil, in his able work on vineyard cul- 
ture — which no American vine-grower should be with- 



Proper Times for Sulphuring. 77 

out — gives a third rule, not intended, however, like 
the two just given, to suit the case of new beginners 
in the practice of the cure, but which is still worth 
quoting here. It is this: Sulphur once when the 
young shoots are only six inches long ; a second time 
during blossoming ; a third time when the fruit has 
grown to one third its full size ; and as often besides 
as the signal vines give warning of disease. 

Another rule, not a rule of stated times, like those 
of Mares and De la Yergne, but, like the one last 
given, intended for persons experienced in the sul- 
phur-cure, is prescribed by another very respectable 
authority. It is this: Give one sulphuring fifteen 
days before blossoming ; a second during its continu- 
ance ; and a third fifteen days after its close ; besides 
others as often between times or afterward as the sig- 
nal vines show the disease to be at hand. 

It will be perceived each of these four rules makes 
blossom-time the governing epoch — the point from 
which to count, and thus each is based not merely on 
the time (24 days) the oidium requires to reproduce 
itself, but also on certain stages in the growth of the 
vine itself which seem favorable to develop that fun- 
gus. As regards our mildew, it also seems very much 
influenced in its comings and goings by the stage of 
growth of the vine, as all who have observed it will 



78 The Sulp hue-Cure. 

admit. How apt it is, for instance, to appear about 
the time when the berries are just formed, and again 
when they have reached one third or half their full 
size. 

Thus we have, to aid us in watching our vineyards 
and in studying the nature of our enemy, a knowl- 
edge, first, of the time needed for the fungus to repro- 
duce itself ; and, secondly, of the times when the state 
of the vine invites . its attacks. We also know the 
kind of weather most suited to its development, name- 
ly, hot and dry succeeding to terms of rain. And now 
let us survey the field of our operations with a view 
to discovering the rules to follow with our own some- 
what peculiar vines. From the first putting forth of 
the young shoots in spring down to the end of vint- 
age and the time of leaf-fall, grape-vines are liable to 
attacks of mildew. This period let us divide into 
three — the first extending from the awakening of veg- 
etation until blossom-time ; the second reaching from 
then until the time when the fruit, beginning its 
changes of color, shows ripening-time to have come ; 
and the third lasting from then till the end of the 
season. 

First Period. — In Europe, owing to the delicate 
nature of their vine-foliage, every considerable devel- 
opment of oi'dium on leaf or stalk requires attention 



Proper Times for Sulphuring. 79 

and recourse to the remedy almost as urgently as if 
the fruit itself were attacked. With American vines 
it is quite different. Excepting, perhaps, the Dela- 
ware, the leaves and stalks of our leading varieties 
seem nearly invulnerable to mildew. I have known 
it to fasten on the foliage of a vineyard of Catawbas, 
Ives, and Concords, and work there undisturbed for 
six or seven weeks without seriously hurting its 
growth or impairing its usefulness, if, indeed, leaves 
could be said to have any use when the fruit they 
were intended to nourish and ripen was rapidly rot- 
ting away. A week of such work on European vines 
would pretty surely have turned them yellow or 
stripped them bare. This peculiar hardiness of ours 
is due, possibly, to the toughness of the leaves, and 
the down which so thickly covers and protects both 
stalks and leaves. 

The American grape-grower, then, being relieved 
of any fear lest a great and sudden calamity surprise 
him during the period now being considered, there 
can be no good reason for beginning operations un- 
der the twenty-day rule of Mares until blossoming 
time. But, whichever rule we follow, a good look-out 
should be kept, and, if signs of mildew actually ap- 
pear, a sulphuring should be given to the infected 
vines at least. 



80 The Sulphur-Cure. 

The approach of blossom time brings us toward the 
close of the first period, and to the moment when it 
will be necessary to decide between the two rules first 
above given, namely, the twenty-day rule of Mares, 
which, modified as above, prescribes one of the sul- 
phurings to be given at blossom time, and the others 
to come every twenty days thereafter, and the thirty- 
day rule of De la Yergne, who tells us to begin just 
before blossom time, to repeat just after it has ended, 
and repeat again about the end of July. One says, 
" Sulphur your vines while the blossoms are open, 
whether any disease be present or not ; it will aid in 
the process and increase the product." The other 
tells us, " Do no such thing unless there is disease to 
be cured." Which authority ought we to follow? 
Evidently neither exclusively until the method of 
each has been tried, carefully, observantly, and fre- 
quently. 

Following the thirty-day rule, and supposing no 
actual invasion of mildew to have happened, we give 
our first sulphuring at that stage of growth of the 
fruit-buds which shows the blossoms are about to 
open. As to the necessity or utility of beginning 
thus early, we are as yet too ignorant of the mildew's 
doings during this first period to know. The wise 
principle, however, which tells us to check all disease 



Pkopee Times foe Sulphuring. 81 

in its earliest attacks, is by Du Brieuil, expressly ap- 
plied to the case of oidium ; and I well remember a 
neighbor who sulphured a part only of his vines be- 
fore blossoming, and then sulphured all of them aft- 
erward, told me those which received but one opera- 
tion did not so completely escape as those which got 
two. 

The Second Period begins with the opening of the 
blossoms — the time, according to Mares' s rule, for 
giving the first stated sulphuring. It should be done 
while blossoming is at the height, and certainly be- 
fore any of the more precocious vines have got 
through and begun to form their fruit. The first 
stated sulphuring, whether performed before blos- 
soms open, as De la Yergne directs, or after they are 
open, as Mares directs, should be a complete one, 
covering the whole vine except old wood, regardless 
of the presence or absence of mildew, and should be 
performed with a bellows. In the case of Norton's 
Seedlings, or other varieties peculiarly sensitive to sul- 
phur, some of the mixtures before mentioned might 
be used, or, what might do better and be equally safe, 
very fine sulphur, thinly but thoroughly spread, as has 
been said before. 

All other sulphurings might be confined to the 
fruit-bunches alone, unless other parts be actually 
D2 



82 The Sulphur-Cure. 

mildewed, or the signal vines show them to be on the 
point of being attacked, in either of which two last 
cases the whole vine, in all its parts, should receive a 
sulphuring. Whenever -the fruit-bunches alone are 
sulphured, it should be done with a dredge-box. 

The practice of sulphuring the fruit-buds without 
the rest of the vine, although not sanctioned by any 
thing I have read in Mares or De la Yergne, is never- 
theless distinctly authorized by Mr. Du Brieuil, who 
recommends us to do the last sulphuring upon the 
fruit-bunches only, and with a dredge-box. 

There will be cases in this country where the mal- 
ady, leaving the fruit-bunches untouched, will attack 
only the leaves, or the stalks, or both. In such cases, 
if we sulphur at all, we should operate on all parts, 
the fruit-bunches as well as the others, for while we 
are about it we may as well include the whole vine. 
But must we always sulphur in such cases ? That is 
a question we can not answer to-day; nevertheless, 
let us consider it. 

Considering, then, how the toughness and downy 
coating peculiar to our American vines seems to sep- 
arate the fate of their leaves and stalks from that of 
their fruit, so that the fruit may be attacked and the 
body of the vine escape, or the body be attacked and 
the fruit escape, the question is whether, while faith- 



Proper Times for Sulphuring. 83 

fully watching for and promptly attending to all at- 
tacks upon the fruit-bunches, we may in any measure 
neglect attacks which confine themselves to other 
parts, and, if so, in what measure may we so neglect 
them % 

On the one hand, we know that attacks of mildew 
will often pass away of themselves without any treat- 
ment, which are cases of spontaneous cure, as they are 
called in France. And in this country we may ex- 
pect, for the reasons above given, that such attacks, if 
confined to the stalks and leaves, may continue for 
several days, and, unlike what happens in France, pass 
off without having inflicted any serious injury upon 
those parts, and without hurting the fruit at all. On 
the other hand, we know disease breeds disease, and 
that, if mildew is allowed to range unchecked over 
the foliage, there may be danger of its falling sud- 
denly upon the fruit between one sulphuring of the 
latter and another. We know, too, that every consid- 
erable injury sustained by the body of the vine must 
in some measure affect every member of it. But, 
though it would look like bad husbandry to tolerate 
in any degree the presence of the pest, yet economy 
must not be forgotten, and if time and practice prove 
it safe to spare any considerable portion of the cost 
and trouble of sulphuring, then time and practice will 
have borne valuable fruit. 



84 The Sulphuk-Cuee. 

The completion of the blossoming process and the 
formation of the young berries bring us to the point 
of time when De la Yergne's second stated sulphur- 
ing must be given. To help to understand what he 
means by designating for the first operation " the mo- 
ment when blossoming is about to begin," and for 
the second that "when it has just finished," bear in 
mind that he places these two moments thirty days 
apart. This will, in the climate where he writes (the 
neighborhood of Bordeaux), bring his second sulphur- 
ing to the 1st of July as an average date ; and he 
sets his third sulphuring for about the 1st of August. 
In our own grape region, the epochs he indicates will 
generally be separated by the same interval of thirty 
days. Now, however reasonable it may seem thus to 
base our operations as to time upon the approach of 
those stages in the vine's growth which seem to favor 
the development of the disease, and however our own 
experience thus far seems to confirm the opinion that 
those stages are the same with our vines, and their 
mildew as with foreign vines and their oidium, yet 
we should not forget there is a law of growth con- 
trolling the reproduction of the fungus — in Europe 
at least — by which it is able to reappear in twenty- 
four days after being suppressed. So it would seem 
prudent in such as adopt the thirty-day rule to look 



Proper Times for Sulphuring. 85 

out well during the last six days of the time, and 
be prepared, if disease appear, to meet it with the 
remedy. 

In following the twenty-day rule it would be eco- 
nomical to begin as late during blossom time as safety 
permitted, and also to prolong the intervals to about 
twenty-four days, in order that the third operation 
should come late enough in July for its effects to ex- 
tend to ripening time, and thus one sulphuring be 
saved. But weather is uncertain. Delays are dan- 
gerous. If we undertake to follow a rule, it is better 
to go through with it. I well remember the only 
sign of mildew I found on any of my vines during 
the season of 1869 was on some of them which the 
intervention of two holidays and two days of rain 
compelled me to defer sulphuring till the twenty-sixth 
day; therefore the beginner would do well to allow 
of no postponement that could be avoided. 

If, after reading the above, any one shall ask why 
it is I counsel for trial a method which extends the 
intervals between sulphurings to thirty days, I an- 
swer that I rely much on the epochs of the vine's 
growth which De la Vergne chooses for his sulphur- 
ings. They seem to come opportunely to meet the 
disease at its chosen times for appearing, and so to be 
capable of a more complete effect than if given be- 






86 The Sulphur- Cure. 

fore or after such times. M. Mares himself counts 
much on the opportuneness of the sulphuring, as well 
that of blossom time as that of the last of July, and 
only recommends the twenty-day practice to those in 
the condition in which we of this country now find 
ourselves, and who wish to secure certainty of result. 

Thus we reach the close of our second period and 
the safe end of our summer with three stated sulphur- 
ings, or at the most four, according to the plan adopt- 
ed. It is my belief that, in most seasons and with 
most varieties, two of these sulphurings may be safe- 
ly confined to the fruit-branches alone, and be done 
with a dredge-box, and one only be needed that shall 
include the whole vine and require a bellows ; name- 
ly, the one at or about blossom time. Moreover, once 
we shall be provided with proper signals, vineyards 
in districts as favorably situated in respect to disease 
as those of Medoc in France may usually escape, as 
happens there, with but two stated sulphurings, and 
perhaps one or two partial ones. What is here meant 
by partial will be explained farther on. 

Third Period. — After the grapes begin to change 
color, though no fungus can hurt them, yet, if the 
vines have been allowed to suffer frem neglected at- 
tacks of mildew, the fruit will begin to rot and fall 
just as it is becoming fully ripe — a trouble nothing 



Proper Times foe Sulphuring. 87 

will help except a premature gathering to press. 
Again, the as yet green fruit -stems may become 
coated' with mildew, which, though unable to injure 
the ripening fruit, may nevertheless pass into the 
wine, and do much injury there ; and accumulations 
of fungus on the leaves, even late in the season, will, 
to say the least, do no good. Therefore it will some- 
times happen that a sulphuring will be proper even 
in the third period ; though, if the vines have been 
kept healthy' and sound down to the end of July, it 
will be very rare that any subsequent trouble can 
come to them. 

Partial Sulphuring. — Negligent workmen, bad 
sulphur, or insufficient tools will often cause individ- 
ual vines to fail of a cure. The fungus will perhaps 
die down to the roots, but these will in a few days 
sprout up with a new growth. Within four or five 
days, therefore, after each general sulphuring of mil- 
dewed vines, it will be proper to carefully search 
through the vineyard for such cases, and renew the 
operation. If the case be very serious, it would be 
well to renew once more within five days after, or cut 
the affected branches off and fling them away. 



88 The Sulphur- Cue 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

r |^HE Cost of Sulphuring. — The luxuriant vines 
of Southern France require, in an average year, 
from eighty to one hundred pounds of flour of sul- 
phur to the acre, and from four to six days' labor to 
put it on. The small, though closely-set vines of the 
neighborhood of Bordeaux require, in an average 
year, only about fifty pounds, but need the same 
amount of labor. In this country the quantity need- 
ed would be midway between the two, and the labor 
would be about the same. In France sulphur costs 
2 J to 2-J cents a pound for the finest and best; in 
this country it costs over twice as much. With these 
data, any one may easily compute the probable ex- 
pense of saving his vines from destruction ; he will 
not find it very dear. The finer the sulphur, the far- 
ther it will go. Should we be able to obtain, in this 
country, as fine an article as the best they use abroad, 
the sieves of the bellows and dredge-boxes might be 
reduced in size, to economize its expenditure. 






Miscellaneous. 89 

Cultivation.— Whatever tends to keep vines in 
strong health helps them resist the disease, therefore 
cultivation should be thorough and frequent enough 
to secure such a condition. But manuring has a de- 
cidedly bad effect when the substance used is not 
well rotted. In every case freshly - manured vines 
should not only be well cultivated, but also sulphured 
with extra care. New earth spread about the roots 
has a most excellent effect in helping to resist disease. 
Where a vineyard is conveniently near a forest, leaf 
mould should be preferred to every other kind of ma- 
nure ; but where this is obtained from damp places, 
it should, like swamp muck, be allowed to remain a 
year in heaps, or properly treated with lime, before 
being hauled on. 

Drainage.— Infinite loss and discouragement have 
come to American vine-growers from neglecting to 
drain. In Europe it has been the custom, from time 
immemorial, to drain in some form all vineyard soils 
not naturally dry, or made so by being walled up in 
terraces. In the beginning we were led to think 
drainage unnecessary because we trenched our ground 
very deep, which so loosened up even the toughest 
clay that, for a while, it did very well; but in time it 
relapsed to its former condition, and was as bad as 
before. No clayey soil can, in the long, grow healthy 



90 The Sulphur-Cure. 

vines unless properly drained — unless very thorough- 
ly and carefully drained; arid, as most of our vine- 
yards are of such soil, their owners had better aban- 
don them if not prepared to make the needed expend- 
iture. As a safeguard against black rot it is quite 
indispensable, being, as before stated, the chief pre- 
ventive to that affliction. 

Restoring decayed Ylneyards. — Many vineyards 
have become so exhausted by neglect, disease, and 
want of drainage that something more must be done 
for them than merely giving medicine. Proper means 
should be taken to restore such, which means, however, 
it is not the purpose of this little work to describe. 
Most valuable directions will be found in M. Du 
Brieuil's work on "Vineyard Culture," in Chapter 
XII., on "Maintenance and Renewal of the Plants." 
I have myself tried layering somewhat on the plan he 
there advises, and like the result. Besides, layering, 
though perhaps not reliable as a cure for mildew, cer- 
tainly acts against the disease, and will materially as- 
sist the sulphur in working its effect. 

Peculiarly Susceptible. — Beyond question some 
varieties will take the disease, as some will take the 
black rot, much more readily than others. The Ca- 
tawba has hitherto been the worst sufferer, and the 
Isabella has escaped the best. But the Catawba is 



Miscellaneous. 91 

worth saving, and the other is not. The Catawba has 
got a worse name than it deserves. It has had the 
misfortune to be the victim of all the mistakes of 
new beginners in vine husbandly, and has been aban- 
doned to the ravages of both mildew and rot till they 
have gained a certain foothold on it. And yet it 
seems to me it is very easily cured of mildew, how- 
ever it may be with black rot. In France they have 
established six categories of vines, arranged in order 
of their susceptibility to the oidium. The Catawba 
appears in the last category, as being, with the Isa- 
bella, the least susceptible of all. From this it can 
be imagined how much more fortunate we are than 
vine -growers in that country, who, nevertheless, in 
practice have little difficulty in combating the dis- 
ease ; and from this we may infer, too, that if any of 
our varieties have to be abandoned as incurable, it 
will not be the Catawba, the King of the Cobblers. 
If I may be allowed to predict, the varieties we shall 
first be disposed to cast away are some of those now 
counted among the indestructibles, honestly puffed 
and believed in as such, because not old enough to 
have come under the control of disease. 

If, again, I should name the vine which I think 
best able to resist disease, and which, even if attack- 
ed, is most worthy of rescuing from its clutches, I 



92 The Sulphur- Cure. 

would name the Norton's Virginia Seedling, whose 
crystal - clear and garnet -red juice, full-bodied and 
rich — whose " vinosity," " neat" flavor, and delicate 
aroma merited and received at the hands of the jury 
of the Paris Exhibition of 1867 the highest mark ac- 
corded to any oft the ninety samples of American 
wine w T hich I had the honor to present for their tast- 
ing. As this vine puts forth at least ten days later, 
and ripens at least ten days earlier than the Catawba, 
and has, at the same time, a surplus of sugar, it is 
adapted to a wide belt of our vine region, and is wor- 
thy of trial in even our most northern districts. Wher- 
ever planted, however, its fruit should be fully fer- 
mented on the skin to make a red and not a pink 
wine. 

Sulphuring Apple and other Fruit -Trees. — 
About the time of the appearance of the o'idium in 
Europe, there came a crowd of other cryptogams, 
which alighted on apple, peach, quince, and apricot 
trees, as well as on clover, sainfoin, violets, roses, and 
many other plants. They all made themselves known 
by a whitish clust, the same to the naked eye as the 
oidium, and worked similar evil effects ; but none of 
them were identical with it, and it was found, on ex- 
amination, that each species of plant had its own va- 
riety of cryptogam, and, upon attempts being made 






Miscellaneous. 93 

to communicate that which fed on the vine to other 
plants, however near to it in kind, the attempts all 
failed. Nevertheless, each variety of cryptogam 
yielded readily to sulphur, and it was applied with 
great success to the fruit-trees especially. Doubtless 
u this is what's the matter" with much of our fruit. 
In fact, careful observers have, for some time past, 
called attention to " mildew" as afflicting our peaches 
and apples ; and that disease, with black rot, which 
has spoiled the shape and quality of half the apples 
we are eating at this present writing, in connection 
with negligent cultivation, are reason enough for all 
the prevailing lamentations over the decay of our or- 
chards. 

I thought I greatly improved the yield and quality 
of my apples last year by sulphuring the trees while 
in blossom. I hope others will try the remedy — as I 
also will, and more seriously the next time — and ob- 
serve and report the results. One application would 
not, of course, test the full value of the system ; and 
though, on the more robust fruit of the tree, destruc- 
tion by disease will be less marked and less rapid than 
on that of the vine, it would be no more than prudent 
to sulphur once at blossom time, and as often after- 
ward as signs of disease should appear; or else to sul- 
phur, without regard to signs of disease, three times, 



94 The Sulphuk-Cuee. 

somewhat following De la Vergne's thirty-day rule as 
applied to the vine. My trees being young, I found 
no difficulty in blowing on the sulphur with bellows 
of ordinary size and shape ; but, for large* trees, the 
nozzle should be elongated by one or more joints of 
tin pipe, which was the expedient resorted to in 
France. 
Try it! 



INDEX. 



A. 

Page 

Anthracnose , 27 

Attenuations of sulphur 33 

B. 

Bag for carrying sulphur 62 

Bellows for applying sulphur to vines 61 

of American make 65 

how to use 69 

proper charge of sulphur for 71 

Black rot 22 

description of. 24 

causes of. 24 

characteristic features of. 26 

weather favorable to produce it 26 

its effects 26 

not curable with sulphur 26 

modes of preventing it 30 

long known in Europe 27 

Black sickness 27 

Blossoming-time, sulphuring in 77, 80, 84 

Brown rot (see gray rot). 

Brush for cleaning sieve of implements 65 

C. 

Catawba grape 38, 90 

Ceps moniteurs 75 

Charbon.... 27 



96 Index. 

Page 

Concord grape 37 

Cracking of grapes affected by disease 19 

Crambos 27 

Crooked Lake grape district 38 

Cultivation of vines as affecting disease 89 

D. 

Drainage, importance of. 89 

as a preventive to black rot 30 

Dredge-box for applying sulphur 63 

tufted 64 

how to use 69 

E. 

Erysephe the true name of the vine fungus 11 

discovered long ago in America :. 20 

E. 

Failure of experiments with sulphur, causes of. 32 

Falling off of grapes 22 

Flour of sulphur 48, 52 

how to distinguish ground sulphur from 54 

Foliage, how affected by mildew 19 

how affected by overdoses of sulphur 40 

G. 

Gray rot 19, 22, 25, 31 

an effect of mildew 31 

Ground sulphur 48, 51 

how it may be made 53 

how distinguished from flour of sulphur 54 

important experiments with, in France 54 

I. 

Implements to use in sulphuring vines 61 

Insects destroyed by sulphur 42 



Index. 97 



L. 

Page 

Layering as a preventive 59 

Lime and sulphur mixed, experiments with 54 

liquid preparation of 57 

M. 

Manuring 89 

Mildew 17 

attacks only the under surfaces of the leaves 19 

attacks of, late in the season 47 

calfs eye one of the effects of. 22 

doubts of its identity with oidium ... 17 

effects of, on foliage 19 

effects modified by peculiarities in the vine 1 8, 19, 79, 82 

falling off of grapes one of its effects 22 

gray (or brown) rot one of its effects. 1 9, 22, 31 

howto recognize its presence 73 

how to get warning of its approach 74 

in what respects it seems to differ from oidium 18 

in what respects resembling oidium.' 21 

musty odor of. 74 

no soil or variety can be called safe from it 36 

time in which it can reproduce itself. 77 

weather favorable to its development 78 

Mixtures of sulphur with lime and other dusts 33 

experiments with, in France 54 

in liquid form 57 

N. 

Norton's Virginia Seedling Grapes, cracking of. 40 

value of. 92 

O. 

Ohio Valley, early success of the grape in the 38 

Oidium 11 

attacks the leaf on both sides 19 

doubts of its identity with mildew 17 

E 



98 Index. 

Page 

Oidium, in what respects mildew differs from 18 

in what respects mildew resembles 21 

three new varieties of 16 

time required for its reproduction 77, 84 

various remedies for it in Europe 58 

• 

P. 

Period first 78 

second 81 

third 86 

R. 

Rain closely following a sulphuring 68 

Red-leaf, or rongeau 12 

Rot (see black rot and gray, or brown rot). 

S. 

Scale for testing sulphur 49 

Shale, sulphurous, of the Ohio Valley 38 

Sieves of bellows 62, 65 

Signal vines '. 75 

Sulphur a cure for the vine disease 8 

effects of an overdose of, on foliage 40 

upon the vegetation of vines 41 

upon insects 42 

in the wine..... 45- 

on the eyes of workmen 71 

different preparations and mixtures of. 48 

flour of. 4S 

ground 48 

test of quality of 49 

of calchium, or sulphur, lime, and water 57 

experiments with various mixtures of. 54 

duty on 53 

of American manufacture 53 

how refined for grinding 53 

proper charge of, in a bellows 71 

Sulphur-cure in Europe 9 



Index. 99 

Page 

Sulphur-cure, reasons why not practiced in America 32 

failure of experiments with, reasons for 32 

'its discovery a result of science, not chance 36 

Sulphuric acid in flour of sulphur 48 

injurious to foliage 40 

Sulphuring vines at blossom time 77 

proper times for 73 

Mares's twenty-day rule for 76 

De la . Vergnes's rule for 76 

Du Brieuil's rule for 76 

another rule for 77 

weather suitable for 67 

how performed 69 

how known to be well done 70 

cost of 88 

fruit-bunches only 81 

propriety of. 82 

partial 87 

apples and other fruit trees 92 

T. 

Temperature at which sulphur vaporizes 67 

Test of fineness of flour of sulphur and ground sulphur 48 

V. 

Vines, American, peculiarities of, in taking disease 1 8, 79 

cultivation of 89 

manuring of 89 

Vineyards, restoring decayed 90 

Vitis iEstavilis , 44 

Vitis Labrusca 44 

W. 

Weather suitable for sulphuring vines 67 

Wine, effect of sulphur on taste of 4o 

Workmen in vineyards, how instructed 69 

The End. 



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Connection with the State of Learning and Philosophy, and the Political 
History of Europe during that Period. Translated, with Notes, &c., by 
A. Maclaine, D.D. A new Edition, continued to 1826, by C. Coote, LL.D. 
2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $4 00. 



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